Monday April 23, 2007 6:40 am Lethbridge Sunrise 6:24 Sunset 20:35 Hours of daylight: 14:11

A. Morning Musings

6:40 am It is +3 C with a high forecast of +16 C.

Here are the news.

CBC Headline: "Be Strong. Press On," Students Told As Classes Resume At Virginia Tech

Classes will resume this morning at Virginia Tech, a week after the shooting that killed 32 students. There will be a number of memorial events planned for the morning on the campus. This will be a very difficult time for both faculty and students.

Canadian Headline: Feds Expected To Introduce Emission Targets This Week

Regulations for industrial pollutors will be announced as part of the Conservative governments clean air policy. At the same time the government has announced that the plans under the Kyoto Protocol are not realistic. John Baird, the federal Environment minister, is right when he says that "Canadians are growing cynical of governments that make big promises and fail to follow through on them", but I am also cynical of governments that put the economy ahead of sound planning.

Australian Headline: (from The Australian): Howard Begins Fightback Over Climate Change

Howard says that targets to reduce greenhouse emissions are the most important economic dilemma of the decade. This is a mirror image of the Canadian headline.

My weight is down 2 to 182. Excellent.

B. Actual/Note

7:00 am Now for a fresh cuppa and a review of the past week. Just a cursory glance at the April Chronology table shows that the last few days have focused on bird watching activities: both the updating of computer files for our Mexican trip as well as a push to see early spring birds in the Lethbridge area. Equally noticeable has been the drop in Learning activities related to Mathematics, Literature and Technology. There are only so many hours in a day/week.

C. Birdwatching

Here is the link for today's birdwatching activities.

D. Plan

Immediate
Mathematics	Continue reading "Algebra: Abstract and Concrete" by Frederick Goodman	1 hr
Literature	Read & make notes for book 4 of "The Brothers Karamazov" by Fyodor Dostoevsky	1 hr
Birds	Update database to include 2007 Mexico trip	1 hr
	Bird watching trip to Henderson Lake, Park Lake & Lake Kehoe	4 hr
Later
Technology	Convert LPs to MP3 format
	Make notes for chap. 4 of "Switching to the Mac"
	Burn backup of images onto DVD
Mathematics	Read & make notes on The Humongous Book of Calculus Problems
	Read "Symmetry" by David Wade
	Make notes for "Mathematics: A Human Endeavor" ch 1
	Read "Fearless Symmetry" chap 9: Elliptic Curves
Model Trains	Add ground cover to oil refinery diorama
	Follow tutorial for version 8 of 3rd PlanIt
	Continue assembly of coaling tower
	Purchase DCC system
Birds	Create notebook pages birding in Mexico
History	Begin reading "Maya"
	Read Watson "Ideas"
Philosophy	Read & make notes for "Breaking the Spell"
	Begin reading "How Are We To Live?" by Peter Singer
Literature	New York Times easy crossword puzzles
GO	Complete reading "Lessons in the Fundamentals of Go"
Puzzles	The Orange Puzzle Cube: puzzle #10
Major Goals
Learning	Review week's pages each Sunday
	Review all pages for the month at the end of each month
Technology	Review & edit iPhoto files for 2006
Model Trains	Become proficient with 3rd PlanIt software
	Install DCC on model train layout
GO	Learn to play GO at something better than a beginner level
Drawing	Learn to draw!! (I keep saying this, yet I have yet to put a pencil to paper).
Mathematics	Continue to play with mathematics.
Literature	Continue to read Literature
Bird Watching	Continue to engage in bird watching activities.

E. Reflection